The Garden Against Time

During the pandemic, British writer and essayist Olivia Laing buys an old house with a garden in Suffolk. The work of restoring flowerbeds, repairing structures, and pruning trees not only soothes but also provides food for thought, prompting Olivia to explore the connection between gardens, history, and culture. Shelters in difficult times, utopias, and dreams of Eden, luxury items — this is far from a complete list of what a patch of land with plantings can be. Comparing the free and open-to-all gardens of Derek Jarman or John Clare with the strict parks built on oppression and violence by the British aristocracy, Laing tries to find an answer to the main question: what is a garden, after all? A paradise for all or a testimony to privilege and the result of unequal resource distribution? Personal or public? There is no definitive answer. But there are beautiful plants, a restored and open-to-visit garden, once established by the gardener Mark Rumerie, which now serves as a home and a source of inspiration for Laing herself, who is joyfully discovering with the wonder of a novice the joys and sorrows of seasonal and eternal tasks in the garden, in its cyclicity.